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Prawn Pulav

Pulav reminds me of good old summer days. It looks as warmly bright as the setting sun and as aromatic as spices garden. The cents of roasted spices coalesced with perky prawns oozing in every grains of buttery rice. Prawn Pulav or Prawn Pulao is a mild rice dish with beautiful fainted spices and ocean calling.

I don’t want the smell of spices to overtake the entire dish, but it should be gently twirled in the black ground. Curly pink prawns played hide and seeks in the golden mountain of savory rice that have been showered with glistening ghee and exotic fragrance of cardamom. I want my Pulav to be settle and mild, yet exciting and fresh.

Prawn Pulav

Ingredients (6 servings)

500 gm prawns- peeled and deveined

3 cups rice

3 tbsp ghee

3 cardamoms- roughly bruised

2 tsp salt (1 tsp for prawn +1 tsp for rice)

1 large onion sliced

1 large tomato- diced

5 cloves garlic- finely minced

2 tbsp finely minced ginger

1 green chili- sliced

1 tsp garam masala (available in Indian/Asian Grocery stores)

1/4 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

Juice of one lime

A handful fresh coriander- chopped

A handful fresh mint- chopped

Preparation

Heat ghee in the large pan over the medium heat and sauté onion until golden brown. Remove half of onion and half of of ghee in the pan to a bowl and keep aside.

Add green chili, garlic and ginger into the pan and stir fry until fragrant.

Add tomato and stir further for few minutes or until tomato is soft and cooked.

Add a cup of water and salt. Bring to boil and add prawn. Cook further only for few minutes.

Turn off the heat, add lime juice, coriander and mint. Mix well and keep aside.

Cook rice in 6 cup of water, add cardamom and salt. When it is half cooked, add onion and ghee that has been kept aside. Mix well and cook further for a minute.

Add prawn and spices mixture and gently stir until mixed well.

Cover and cook further until rice is cooked and fluffy.

One afternoon, the spices’ whisper murmured mildly through out our house. As I ladled the rice into the plates, the steams dispersed the cozy scents even more. The pink prawns dropped down along with soft rice like rubies bounced in golden Indian sand.

The prawns were so fresh, juicy and it felt like an ocean breeze swept through the dish. Turmeric powder and other spices characterized the plain rice to fine ambers infused with flavourful fragrance. Every mouthful was a good definition of delicious, perfectly seasoned and combined. It was one of the most beautiful lunches we had.